The Russian Navy will deploy the Bastion-P mobile coastal defense missile system to the Kuril Islands near Japan border in late Summer 2016, according to a source in the Russian defense industry.

The island chain known as the Kurils stretches north across the Pacific Ocean from the Japanese island of Hokkaido to the southern tip of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

Four islands – which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories – are the subject of a 60-year-old dispute between the two nations.

They are Kunashir (known in Japanese as Kunashiri), Iturup (Etorofu), Shikotan and the rocky Habomai islets.

The southernmost islet in the Habomai group lies only a few kilometers off Nemuro on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

“The Ministry of Defense is planning to deploy the Bastion-P mobile missile systems to the Kurils in August 2016. The systems will significantly increase the combat capabilities of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy,” the source said.

The 3K55 Bastion-P MCDMS is designed to destroy naval surface combatants at distances of up to 300 km (185 miles). K340P, K342R and K380R mobile command post (MCP) vehicles are based on the MZKT-7930 chassis manufactured by the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant. Both K340P and K342R are equipped with two Onyx 3M55 supersonic cruise missiles (SS-N-26 Strobile/Yakhont) each.

The Ministry of Defense phased in the Bastion-P MCDMS in 2010. Three battalions of Bastion-P systems were issued to the 11th Independent Missile and Artillery Brigade (Black Sea Fleet) near Anapa. Each battalion includes four SPLs, four TLs, one MCP and several technical support systems. The unit can be complemented by target designation vehicle equipped with the Monolith-B radar. One battalion of the 11th brigade was later transferred to the vicinity of Sevastopol.